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Topic: Question about binaural microphones (Read 6751 times)

Hi. I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool taper, I'm a musician and a newspaper guy — what a combination.

I like the idea of mics in earbuds to use with my Edirol R-09, but am unclear on something. If I get a budget set of earbuds — like around 70 bucks — can I use them right out of the box with my Edirol R-09 or will I have to buy a battery pack to power them?

I have a pair of those SP-TFB-2 mics from Sound Professionals. I've used them a few times with my R-09 but always powered by a preamp (Church 9100) -- and the results were really pretty nice. I believe that you may encounter more distortion if all you're doing is powering from the R-09, especially at a loud concert. I know when I used my SP-CMC-8's with only R-09 power there was quite a bit of distortion when I taped a loud show, but the recording is still very listenable.

That said, it certainly is worth experimenting to see how they sound w/o any additional power. I'd tape something you aren't too concerned with and experiment.

Hi. I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool taper, I'm a musician and a newspaper guy — what a combination.

I like the idea of mics in earbuds to use with my Edirol R-09, but am unclear on something. If I get a budget set of earbuds — like around 70 bucks — can I use them right out of the box with my Edirol R-09 or will I have to buy a battery pack to power them?

Thanks for taking the time to deal with a know-nothing like me!

Appreciate it.

Allbest,

Jim

I do care about audio quality and noise from my gear. I generally use a Sound Devices MixPre (when I can) with and R-09 and pair of NT1-A's, NT4/NT5's and AT-3032's (recently purchased...and very very impressed so far).

When I use the SP-TFB-2 (High Sensitivity models) direct into the R-09 mic preamp + plugin-power on, I am impressed with what $69 can do...very impressed. The battery box will buy more headroom for loud sources (from 105 dB to 120 dB). I am fairly confident you won't need a battery box.

For more, type in "SP-TFB-2" in the search page ( http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/searchText.php ) to pull up examples. You can preview low-quality versions of the sound by pressing the play button, or of you set up a login you can download the high-qulity originals.

Yes, essentially. The in ear binaural mics will record the sound as you hear it. You'll even be able to distinguish sounds from different locations. However, playback is only really effective over earphones. It will not sound quite right played back over traditional stereo speakers.

Singing and playing acoustic guitar while headwearing mics can be super nice for vocal, but less ideal for the guitar that voices away from you mostly off the instrument's front side.

Several headwearing customers have tried placing a large mirror angled so you can see the guitar while playing.

Perhaps most more practical is a 4' square sheet of +1/2" plywood, maybe with a small glued mirror (tile?) so to again 'see' the precise reflection angle. This seems to nicely boost the guitar in the recording, and varying the 'mirror' angle gives some tonal/loudness adjustment..

And of course, simply sitting/standing directly facing close to any fairly clear corner wall of the room will also bounce guitar back into your face. Not my favorite for just looking kinda dumb, like there should be a dunce cap in the picture, so I'd suggest using this with only sympathetic fans present.

There's a few with more mic and guitar instrument budget, and opt for my boom-mounted LiteGUY HRTF dummy head (no ears) for stereo-surround (not headphone only binaural type) recording. Hear several of over dozen Collings instruments in the studio session section at: www.sonicstudios.com/mp3_2slp.htm#inskeep

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"mics? I no got no mics! Besides, I no have to show you no stink'n mics!" stxxlth taper's disclaimer

I'm a huge fan of ear-buds. But I always run it through a pre-amp. Just makes the sound clearer and easier to use. I don't play it much with my acoustic, but you cannot beat the sound quality.

Most 'ear-bud' mics do not do so well being powered directly from the lower-than-optimum mic powering voltages offered from most small flash recorders having mic input powering feature. These typically at 2.5 volts, sometimes as high 5 volts, but most ‘binaurals’ need over 5 volts to really sound good.

Other than choosing a preamplifier solely for having optimum powering for your brand of mic, needing an external preamplifier for satisfactory audio largely depends on your subject recording requirements for having a quiet low noise mic preamp.

It may help to know my own DSM mics are fully optimized for low 1.5 to 3 volt powering available directly from most portables. However, my DSM mics also require the deck's mic power current limiting resister be a certain value, and Sony's PCM-D50 /M10 models are the ONLY ones to have gotten this exactly as required for full performance DSM mic operation.